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Hello, college football fan. Do you have a rooting interest in the Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl? You do now!
Super Bowl starters as recruits
Super Bowl starters as recruits
Here's a look at which team you should be rooting for, based on your undying allegiance to your college, home state, or college's conference. These things are charted for you below, counting both the active rosters and injured reserve lists for each team. (Based on current rosters provided by the Patriots and the Seahawks.)
The Big Ten, Pac-12, and SEC combine for 75 of the Super Bowl's players, well over half. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is counted for both NC State and Wisconsin, and even if he weren't, the Badgers would still have more players on Super Bowl rosters than any other program.
It's not much fun to break down which states the most players hail from, since it's almost always going to be California (24), Florida (nine), and Texas (15). So I made a bad map instead of a chart for that part. Illinois has eight this year, though! How about that!
By conference
| Conference | Total | Seahawks | Patriots |
| Big Ten | 28 | 10 | 18 |
| Pac-12 | 25 | 14 | 11 |
| SEC | 22 | 15 | 7 |
| ACC | 12 | 7 | 5 |
| Big 12 | 9 | 6 | 3 |
| Conference USA | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Mountain West | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| American | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| MAC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Big Sky | 2 | 2 | |
| CAA | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Independent | 2 | 2 | |
| Ivy | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Ohio Valley | 2 | 2 | |
| CIS | 1 | 1 | |
| Gulf South | 1 | 1 | |
| MEAC | 1 | 1 | |
| NESCAC | 1 | 1 | |
| Northern Sun | 1 | 1 | |
| SIAC | 1 | 1 | |
| Southland | 1 | 1 | |
| Sun Belt | 1 | 1 | |
| SWAC | 1 | 1 |
By college
| College | Total | Seahawks | Patriots |
| Wisconsin | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| Alabama | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Michigan | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Oregon | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Rutgers | 4 | 4 | |
| Stanford | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Texas A&M | 4 | 4 | |
| UCLA | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| California | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Illinois | 3 | 3 | |
| LSU | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| NC State | 3 | 3 | |
| Purdue | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| TCU | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| USC | 3 | 3 | |
| Colorado | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Florida State | 2 | 2 | |
| Iowa | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Kent State | 2 | 2 | |
| Louisiana Tech | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Memphis | 2 | 2 | |
| Mississippi State | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Notre Dame | 2 | 2 | |
| Oklahoma State | 2 | 2 | |
| Penn State | 2 | 2 | |
| Tennessee | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Utah State | 2 | 2 | |
| Alabama State | 1 | 1 | |
| Arizona | 1 | 1 | |
| Arizona State | 1 | 1 | |
| Arkansas | 1 | 1 | |
| Boise State | 1 | 1 | |
| Boston College | 1 | 1 | |
| Bowling Green | 1 | 1 | |
| Brown | 1 | 1 | |
| Clemson | 1 | 1 | |
| Concordia-St. Paul | 1 | 1 | |
| Cornell | 1 | 1 | |
| Delaware | 1 | 1 | |
| Duke | 1 | 1 | |
| Eastern Illinois | 1 | 1 | |
| Florida | 1 | 1 | |
| Florida A&M | 1 | 1 | |
| Fort Valley State | 1 | 1 | |
| Fresno State | 1 | 1 | |
| Georgia | 1 | 1 | |
| Hofstra | 1 | 1 | |
| Houston | 1 | 1 | |
| Kentucky | 1 | 1 | |
| Louisiana-Monroe | 1 | 1 | |
| Louisville | 1 | 1 | |
| Marshall | 1 | 1 | |
| Maryland | 1 | 1 | |
| Miami | 1 | 1 | |
| Middlebury | 1 | 1 | |
| Missouri | 1 | 1 | |
| Montana | 1 | 1 | |
| Nebraska | 1 | 1 | |
| Northwestern State | 1 | 1 | |
| Ohio | 1 | 1 | |
| Ohio State | 1 | 1 | |
| Oklahoma | 1 | 1 | |
| Ole Miss | 1 | 1 | |
| Oregon State | 1 | 1 | |
| Pittsburgh | 1 | 1 | |
| Portland State | 1 | 1 | |
| Regina | 1 | 1 | |
| Rice | 1 | 1 | |
| San Diego State | 1 | 1 | |
| South Carolina | 1 | 1 | |
| Southeast Missouri State | 1 | 1 | |
| Southern Miss | 1 | 1 | |
| Syracuse | 1 | 1 | |
| Texas | 1 | 1 | |
| Texas Tech | 1 | 1 | |
| USF | 1 | 1 | |
| Utah | 1 | 1 | |
| Virginia | 1 | 1 | |
| Virginia Tech | 1 | 1 | |
| Washington | 1 | 1 | |
| West Alabama | 1 | 1 | |
| West Virginia | 1 | 1 |
By state
Map created with Paintbrush, because I don't like bothering people who are smarter than me. Let's laugh at it together.
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